Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced a Lokayukta probe against Housing Minister Prakash Mehta, who has been accused by the Opposition of impropriety in a slum-redevelopment project in the city.

Mehta has been under fire ever since he allegedly allowed "unauthorised" transfer of extra building rights in the SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) project at the MP Mills Compound in south Mumbai, originally granted to slum dwellers, to project-affected people.

The opposition has been alleging that the move was aimed at favouring a particular developer.

"After I dug deep into the MP Mills compound issue, there were many skeletons that were unearthed and I asked myself if this was another 'Adarsh' (referring to the Adarsh scam)," Fadnavis said replying to a motion moved by Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde in the Legislative Council.

He said said all permissions for construction on this particular land were given between 1999-2004. "As per the property card, that land is owned by the Defence Ministry. How could the previous government permit an additional FSI on the plot when it was known that it was defence land," he said.

Mehta had wrongly mentioned on the file of the project that he had kept the chief minister in loop about the transfer, which was denied by Fadnavis.

"I have decided to conduct a probe by the Lokayukta into the allegations ma...